Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 49:6
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
They that trust in their wealth – The first reason why there was no cause of alarm is drawn Psa 49:6-10 from the powerlessness of wealth, as illustrated by the fact that it can do nothing to save life or to prevent death. He refers to those who possess it as trusting in their wealth, or relying on that as the source of their power.
And boast themselves – Pride themselves; or feel conscious of safety and strength because they are rich. It is the power which wealth is supposed to confer, that is alluded to here.
In the multitude of their riches – The abundance of their wealth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
As that which can and will secure them from Gods judgments, and from the calamities of human life. The psalmist having said that he and other good men had no sufficient cause of fear from their present sufferings from ungodly men, now he proceeds, on the contrary, to show that his ungodly enemies had no reason to be secure and confident because of their present riches and prosperous success.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. They are vainglorious.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They that trust in their wealth,…. In their outward force, power, and strength; their horses, chariots, and armies; see
Ps 33:16; or in their worldly goods and substance; which seems to be the sense of the word here, as appears from
Ps 49:10. To “trust” in them is to set the eye and heart upon them; or to take up rest in them, to depend on them, to the neglect of divine Providence, with respect to future living in this world; and to expect eternal happiness hereafter, because favoured with many earthly enjoyments here: so to do is evil. Therefore the Targum is, “woe to the wicked that trust in their substance”. And it is also very weak and foolish to trust in riches, since they are uncertain, are here today, and gone tomorrow; and are unsatisfying, he that has much would still have more: nor can they deliver from evil, from present judgments, from the sword, the pestilence, and famine; nor from death, nor from the future judgment, and wrath to come; and are often injurious to the spiritual and eternal welfare of men; see 1Ti 6:9;
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; of their acquisition of them by their own diligence and industry; and of their having them because of some peculiar virtue and excellency in themselves; and of the abundance of them. Such rejoicing and boasting is evil; since riches are the gifts of God, the blessings of his Providence; and are often bestowed on persons neither wise nor diligent, and much less deserving; see Jer 9:23. The whole may be applied to the Romish antichrist and his followers, who trust in and boast of their temporal riches, which in one hour will come to nought,
Re 18:7; and of the treasure of the church, of merit; and works of supererogation; with all which they cannot redeem one soul from ruin and destruction, as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Vanity of Worldly Riches; The End of the Wicked. | |
6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) 9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. 10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. 11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. 12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. 13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
In these verses we have,
I. A description of the spirit and way of worldly people, whose portion is in this life, Ps. xvii. 14. It is taken for granted that they have wealth, and a multitude of riches (v. 6), houses and lands of inheritance, which they call their own, v. 11. God often gives abundance of the good things of this world to bad men who live in contempt of him and rebellion against him, by which it appears that they are not the best things in themselves (for then God would give most of them to his best friends), and that they are not the best things for us, for then those would not have so much of them who, being marked for ruin, are to be ripened for it by their prosperity, Prov. i. 32. A man may have abundance of the wealth of this world and be made better by it, may thereby have his heart enlarged in love, and thankfulness, and obedience, and may do that good with it which will be fruit abounding to his account; and therefore it is not men’s having riches that denominates them worldly, but their setting their hearts upon them as the best things; and so these worldly people are here described. 1. They repose a confidence in their riches: They trust in their wealth (v. 6); they depend upon it as their portion and happiness, and expect that it will secure them from all evil and supply them with all good, and that they need nothing else, no, not God himself. Their gold is their hope (Job xxxi. 24), and so it becomes their God. Thus our Saviour explains the difficulty of the salvation of rich people (Mark x. 24): How hard is it for those that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! See 1 Tim. vi. 17. 2. They take a pride in their riches: They boast themselves in the multitude of them, as if they were sure tokens of God’s favour and certain proofs of their own ingenuity and industry (my might, and the power of my hand, have gotten me this wealth), as if they made them truly great and happy, and more really excellent than their neighbours. They boast that they have all they would have (Ps. x. 3) and can set all the world at defiance (I sit as a queen, and shall be a lady for ever); therefore they call their lands after their own names, hoping thereby to perpetuate their memory; and, if their lands do retain the names by which they called them, it is but a poor honour; but they often change their names when they change their owners. 3. They flatter themselves with an expectation of the perpetuity of their worldly possessions (v. 11): Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and with this thought they please themselves. Are not all thoughts inward? Yes; but it intimates, (1.) That this thought is deeply rooted in their minds, is rolled and revolved there, and carefully lodged in the innermost recesses of their hearts. A godly man has thoughts of the world, but they are his outward thoughts; his inward thought is reserved for God and heavenly things: but a worldly man has only some floating foreign thoughts of the things of God, while his fixed thought, his inward thought, is about the world; that lies nearest his heart, and is upon the throne there. (2.) There it is industriously concealed. They cannot, for shame, say that they expect their houses to continue for ever, but inwardly they think so. If they cannot persuade themselves that they shall continue for ever, yet they are so foolish as to think their houses shall, and their dwelling-places; and suppose they should, what good will that do them when they shall be no longer theirs? But they will not; for the world passes away, and the fashion of it. All things are devoured by the teeth of time.
II. A demonstration of their folly herein. In general (v. 13), This their way is their folly. Note, The way of worldliness is a very foolish way: those that lay up their treasure on earth, and set their affections on things below, act contrary both to right reason and to their true interest. God himself pronounced him a fool who thought his goods were laid up for many years, and that they would be a portion for his soul, Luk 12:19; Luk 12:20. And yet their posterity approve their sayings, agree with them in the same sentiments, say as t hey say and do as they do, and tread in the steps of their worldliness. Note, The love of the world is a disease that runs in the blood; men have it by kind, till the grace of God cures it. To prove the folly of carnal worldlings he shows,
1. That with all their wealth they cannot save the life of the dearest friend they have in the world, nor purchase a reprieve for him when he is under the arrest of death (v. 7-9): None of them can by any means redeem his brother, his brother worldling, who would give counter-security out of his own estate, if he would but be bail for him: and gladly he would, in hopes that he might do the same kindness for him another time. But their words will not be taken one for another, nor will one man’s estate be the ransom of another man’s life. God does not value it; it is of no account with him; and the true value of things is as they stand in his books. His justice will not accept it by way of commutation or equivalent. The Lord of our brother’s life is the Lord of our estate, and may take both if he please, without either difficulty to himself or wrong to us; and therefore one cannot be ransom for another. We cannot bribe death, that our brother should still live, much less that he should live for ever, in this world, nor bribe the grave, that he should not see corruption; for we must needs die, and return to the dust, and there is no discharge from that war. What folly is it to trust to that, and boast of that, which will not enable us so much as for one hour to respite the execution of the sentence of death upon a parent, a child, or friend that is to us as our own soul! It is certainly true that the redemption of the soul is precious and ceaseth for ever; that is, life, when it is going, cannot be arrested, and when it is gone it cannot be recalled, by any human art, or worldly price. But this looks further, to the eternal redemption which was to be wrought out by the Messiah, whom the Old-testament saints had an eye to as the Redeemer. Everlasting life is a jewel of too great a value to be purchased by the wealth of this world. We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold,1Pe 1:18; 1Pe 1:19. The learned Dr. Hammond applies the Psa 49:8; Psa 49:9 expressly to Christ: “The redemption of the soul shall be precious, shall be high-prized, it shall cost very dear; but, being once wrought, it shall cease for ever, it shall never need to be repeated, Heb 9:25; Heb 9:26; Heb 10:12. And he (that is, the Redeemer) shall yet live for ever, and shall not see corruption; he shall rise again before he sees corruption, and then shall live for evermore,” Rev. i. 18. Christ did that for us which all the riches of the world could not do; well therefore may he be dearer to us than any worldly things. Christ did that for us which a brother, a friend, could not do for us, no, not one of the best estate or interest; and therefore those that love father or brother more than him are not worthy of him. This likewise shows the folly of worldly people, who sell their souls for that which would never buy them.
2. That with all their wealth they cannot secure themselves from the stroke of death. The worldling sees, and it vexes him to see it, that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, v. 10. Therefore he cannot but expect that it will, at length, come to his own turn; he cannot find any encouragement to hope that he himself shall continue for ever, and therefore foolishly comforts himself with this, that, though he shall not, his house shall. Some rich people are wise, they are politicians, but they cannot out-wit death, nor evade his stroke, with all their art and management; others are fools and brutish (Fortuna favet fatuis–Fools are Fortune’s favourites); these, though they do no good, yet perhaps do no great hurt in the world: but that shall not excuse them; they shall perish, and be taken away by death, as well as the wise that did mischief with their craft. Or by the wise and the foolish we may understand the godly and the wicked; the godly die, and their death is their deliverance; the wicked perish, and their death is their destruction; but, however, they leave their wealth to others. (1.) They cannot continue with it, nor will it serve to procure them a reprieve. That is a frivolous plea, though once it served a turn (Jer. xli. 8), Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field. (2.) They cannot carry it away with them, but must leave it behind them. (3.) They cannot foresee who will enjoy it when they have left it; they must leave it to others, but to whom they know not, perhaps to a fool (Eccl. ii. 19), perhaps to an enemy.
3. That, as their wealth will stand them in no stead in a dying hour, so neither will their honour (v. 12): Man, being in honour, abides not. We will suppose a man advanced to the highest pinnacle of preferment, as great and happy as the world can make him, man in splendour, man at his best estate, surrounded and supported with all the advantages he can desire; yet then he abides not. His honour does not continue; that is a fleeting shadow. He himself does not, he tarries not all night; this world is an inn, in which his stay is so short that he can scarcely be said to get a night’s lodging in it; so little rest is there in these things; he has but a baiting time. He is like the beasts that perish; that is, he must as certainly die as the beasts, and his death will be as final a period to his state in this world as theirs is; his dead body likewise will putrefy as theirs does; and (as Dr. Hammond observes) frequently the greatest honours and wealth, unjustly gotten by the parent, descend not to any one of his posterity (as the beasts, when they die, leave nothing behind them to their young ones, but the wide world to feed in), but fall into other hands immediately, for which he never designed to gather them.
4. That their condition on the other side of death will be very miserable. The world they dote upon will not only not save them from death, but will sink them so much the lower into hell (v. 14): Like sheep they are laid in the grave. Their prosperity did but feed them like sheep for the slaughter (Hos. iv. 16), and then death comes, and shuts them up in the grave like fat sheep in a fold, to be brought forth to the day of wrath, Job xxi. 30. Multitudes of them, like flocks of sheep dead of some disease, are thrown into the grave, and there death shall feed on them, the second death, the worm that dies not, Job xxiv. 20. Their own guilty consciences, like so many vultures, shall be continually preying upon them, with, Son, remember, Luke xvi. 25. Death insults and triumphs over them, as it is represented in the fall of the king of Babylon, at which hell from beneath is moved, Isa. xiv. 9, c. While a saint can ask proud Death, Where is thy sting? Death will ask the proud sinner, Where is thy wealth, thy pomp? and the more he was fattened with prosperity the more sweetly will death feed on him. And in the morning of the resurrection, when all that sleep in the dust shall awake (Dan. xii. 2), the upright shall have dominion over them, shall not only be advanced to the highest dignity and honour when they are filled with everlasting shame and contempt, elevated to the highest heavens when they are sunk to the lowest hell, but they shall be assessors with Christ in passing judgment upon them, and shall applaud the justice of God in their ruin. When the rich man in hell begged that Lazarus might bring him a drop of water to cool his tongue he owned that that upright man had dominion over him, as the foolish virgins also owned the dominion of the wise, and that they lay much at their mercy, when the begged, Give us of your oil. Let this comfort us in reference to the oppressions which the upright are now often groaning under, and the dominion which the wicked have over them. The day is coming when the tables will be turned (Esther ix. 1) and the upright will have the dominion. Let us now judge of things as they will appear at that day. But what will become of all the beauty of the wicked? Alas! that shall all be consumed in the grave from their dwelling all that upon which they valued themselves, and for which others caressed and admired them, was adventitious and borrowed; it was paint and varnish, and they will rise in their own native deformity. The beauty of holiness is that which the grave, that consumes all other beauty, cannot touch, or do any damage to. Their beauty shall consume, the grave (or hell) being a habitation to every one of them; and what beauty can be there where there is nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. They trust in their wealth. We are now furnished with the reason why the suffering children of God should dismiss their apprehensions, and keep themselves from despondency, even when reduced to extremity by the violence and treachery of their enemies. Any boasted power which they possess is fleeting and evanescent. The Psalmist would convince us that the fear of man is unwarrantable; that it argues ignorance of what man is even at his best; and that it were as reasonable to startle at a shadow or a spectre. They boast themselves, he adds, in the multitude of their riches, and this is an error into which we are disposed to fall, forgetting that the condition of man in this world is fluctuating and transitory. It is not merely from the intrinsic insufficiency of wealth, honors, or pleasures, to confer true happiness, that the Psalmist proves the misery of worldly men, but from their manifest and total incapacity of forming a correct judgment of such possessions. Happiness is connected with the state of mind of that man who enjoys it, and none would call those happy who are sunk in stupidity and security, and are destitute of understanding. The Psalmist satisfactorily proves the infatuation of the wicked from the confidence which they place in their power and wealth, and their disposition to boast of them. It is a convincing sign of folly when one cannot discern what is before his eyes. Not a day passes without forcing the plain fact upon their notice, that none can redeem the life of another; so that their conduct is nothing less than insanity. Some read, A man shall not be able to redeem his brother; which amounts to the same meaning, and the text admits of this translation. The Hebrew word אח, ach, which I have rendered brother, is by others translated one; but I do not approve, although I would not absolutely reject, this reading. The Psalmist adds, that none can give a price to God for the ransom of another, where he adverts to the truth that men’s lives are absolutely at the disposal of God, and that they never can be extended by any human arrangement one moment beyond the period which God has fixed.
He enforces the same lesson in the verse which follows, where he states that the redemption of their soul is precious, an expression not to be understood as implying merely that it is an event of rare occurrence, but that it never can take place, as 1Sa 3:1, where the word of the Lord is said to have been precious under the priesthood of Eli, when it is evidently meant that it had ceased altogether. The Psalmist would assert that no man can hope to purchase an immortality either for himself or others in this world. I have rendered the close of verse 8, And their continuance for ever; but others, who construe the Hebrew word חדל, chadal, as a verb, meaning to cease, read, And ceaseth for ever, as if the Psalmist meant that no price was sufficiently great to answer the purpose, and that it must therefore cease for ever, as what could never obtain the end desired. I consider that which I have given to be the real meaning of the word, having had occasion already to observe upon Psa 39:5, that it signifies the fixed term of human life. The words in verse 9, That he should still live for ever, more fully express the truth, that it is not merely impossible to redeem the life of men when they are dead, but impossible while they are yet living, to extend the term of their existence. A definite limit has been assigned to every man’s life. This he cannot pass over, and the Psalmist would impress the fact upon us as one which stamps folly upon the conduct of the wicked, who will cherish their unfounded confidence even at the moment when they are upon the brink of the grave. In all this, it may strike the reader that he has not announced any thing which merits being called a dark saying, and has rather been treating a popular subject in a very plain style of language; but if he consider that David here condemns, as by a voice issuing from the awful judgment-seat of God, the stupidity of such as forget that they are men, he will not be disposed to reckon the expression inapplicable. Again, we have seen that he has opened his dark saying, it being the divine will that instruction should be delivered in a form adapted to the meanest capacity.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) They thati.e., the rogues implied in the last verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6-9. His first argument is grounded on the insufficiency of wealth and worldly power to save life, or to bring back from the grave.
Redeem ransom Two strong Levitical terms for regaining what has become legally forfeited especially, where life had become forfeited by paying an equivalent, or satisfaction, as in the case of the “firstborn.” Exo 13:12-13; Exo 34:20; Lev 27:27; Num 18:15.
Redemption of their soul is precious That is, the redemption price of man’s life is costly too costly for man to pay. This applies to all men, but the psalmist is specially speaking of ungodly men, who place their whole trust in their riches. God only can redeem a soul. (See Psa 49:15.) “Soul,” here, though it may be rendered life, has the sense, as in other places, of the ego, selfhood, or personality, equivalent to the total man. Under the law, the firstborn, mortgaged lands, captives of war, might be redeemed with money, but no man can pay to God a ransom or a satisfaction for the release of even a brother from the death penalty caused by sin.
It ceaseth for ever The ransom price is left off absolutely and for ever omitted or, as Ewald and others, “Is wanting for evermore.” The law makes no mention of it, and no man is so foolish as to propose or think of offering a redemption price, or satisfaction, for the release even of his body from death, “so that he should still live forever, and not see corruption,” much less for the release of his soul from guilt. God alone could provide this. This eighth verse, though parenthetically read, stands in close connexion as to sense with Psa 49:7; Psa 49:9-10, and might be transposed so as to read after Psa 49:9, without parenthesis.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Helplessness Of The Rich In The Face Of Death ( Psa 49:6-10 ).
He now points out that the rich are helpless in the face of death. None can redeem his brother, because the price of such redemption is too high. None can give to his brother eternal life and incorruptibility. The implication is that such a redemption might be possible. But not at a cost that the rich can pay, however rich they are.
Psa 49:6-9
Those who trust in their wealth,
And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him,
(For the redemption of their life is costly,
And it fails for ever),
That he should still live always,
That he should not see corruption.’
He sees men strutting around in their riches and splendour, confident that nothing can drag them down. And then they are suddenly faced with the death of a loved one, and there is nothing that they can do about it. Suddenly all their wealth has become useless. All their money cannot enable them to buy that person back from death. They cannot make anyone live for ever.
The words for ransom and redemption are found in Exo 21:30 where a man is considered to bear the guilt for a death which is caused by an ox if that ox has gored men previously, thus showing its propensities, and has been allowed to live (thus putting its owner under a responsibility to ensure that it cannot happen again). If it gores a man to death the owner bears the guilt. But in that case ransom and redemption was possible and the courts and the relatives of the dead man could determine the size of compensation which would allow the owner to live.
However, the Psalmist’s point is that when it comes to a man or woman themselves dying, there is no price payable by man that can prevent them from dying and their body corrupting. In this case no ransom is sufficient. The redemption of such a life is too costly. Any attempt to achieve it must fail for ever. Again, however, there is the implication that there is such a redemption. It is simply one that is not achievable by man.
‘By any means redeem.’ This is translating the emphatic repetition of the root for ‘redeem’ in the Hebrew text (padoh yipdeh). We might paraphrase as ‘redeem by redemption’. The idea is that redemption by any earthly means is totally impossible.
‘Nor give to God a ransom for him.’ Indeed none is able to pay sufficient to satisfy God’s requirements. And that is because the price of redemption is too high (‘the redemption of their life is costly’) and all men’s efforts to achieve it can only fail (‘it fails for ever’).
Psa 49:10
For he will see it.
Wise men die,
The fool and the brutish alike perish,
And leave their wealth to others.’
‘For he will see it.’ The one who dies will see corruption whatever men do to prevent it. It will be just as true for the wise man as for the fool and brutish. All alike perish. And all alike leave their wealth to others.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 49:6-8. They that trust in their wealth, &c. Some translate it, Confident men boast themselves in their wealth, and in the multitude of their riches: Psa 49:7. One cannot by any means redeem the other, nor afford any ransom to God for him: Psa 49:8. For it is of high price to purchase any one’s life, that he should subsist for ever. Mr. Mudge’s version of this passage is, Psa 49:6. They that trust on their substance, and boast in the abundance of their riches; Psa 49:7. Not one can, in truth, redeem his brother, nor give to God his ransom: Psa 49:8. (For the ransom of their life is of too high a value, and he is extinct for ever;) Psa 49:9. So that he should live on continually, and not see the pit. Houbigant renders the 8th and 9th verses thus: Psa 49:8. For the redemption of their soul is precious: Psa 49:9. But he who ceaseth in this world, shall yet live; though he see the pit, he shall not see it for ever. This he supposes to contain the parable or dark saying mentioned in the 4th verse; and the Psalmist, says he, on account of this hope of immortality set before man, condemns him for his inattention to this immortality, for limiting all his hopes to the present state of existence, and so becoming like the beasts that perish.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
These words are very plain, and speak a truth which every day’s experience in the world proves. Every rich man that dies manifests a new testimony, that death is not to be bribed. Neither can one rich man stop the progress of death for his brother. But, doth not this very statement of the inability of riches among rich brethren to redeem each other, seem to point to one who became the brother of the poor in this world, who are rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, on purpose to redeem them? Reader! do turn to that sweet scripture, and observe what is said on this subject, Lev 25:25 , etc.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 49:6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
Ver. 6. They that trust in their wealth ] Which was never yet true to those that trusted in it; and yet it is wondrous hard to have wealth, and not in some measure to trust in it; that is, to think ourselves simply the better and the safer for it, as our Saviour showeth, and his disciples, after some wonderment, at length understood him; so Mar 10:23-24 . Hence that strict charge, 1Ti 6:17 .
And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
trust. Hebrew. batah. See App-69.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
trust: Psa 52:7, Psa 62:10, Job 31:24, Job 31:25, Pro 10:15, Pro 23:5, Mar 10:24, 1Ti 6:17
boast: Est 5:11, Jer 9:23, Eze 28:4, Eze 28:5, Hos 12:8, Luk 12:19
Reciprocal: 2Sa 21:4 – We will Est 8:1 – give the house Job 3:14 – kings Job 3:19 – The small Job 21:16 – Lo Job 34:19 – regardeth Psa 10:3 – boasteth Psa 22:29 – and none Pro 10:2 – Treasures Pro 11:4 – Riches Pro 13:8 – ransom Pro 18:11 – General Ecc 8:8 – is no Isa 14:10 – Art thou also Jer 41:8 – Slay Jer 48:7 – because Jer 49:4 – trusted Dan 11:4 – he shall stand Zep 1:18 – their silver Mat 19:23 – That Luk 6:24 – woe Luk 9:25 – what Luk 16:22 – the rich Joh 1:4 – the life Rom 1:30 – boasters 1Co 1:29 – General Gal 6:14 – that I 2Ti 3:2 – boasters Jam 1:11 – so Jam 5:1 – ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 49:6-9. They, &c. The psalmist, having said that good men had no sufficient cause of fear on account of what they might suffer from ungodly men, now proceeds to show that the ungodly had no reason to be secure because of their riches. That trust in their wealth As that which can secure them from calamities. None of them can redeem Either from the first or second death; his brother Whom he would do his utmost to preserve, nor consequently himself; nor give to God The only Lord of life, and the Judge who passes on him the sentence of death; a ransom for him Hebrew, , cophro, his expiation, or, the price of his redemption, namely, from death. For the redemption of their soul Of their life; is precious Costly, hard to be obtained. And it ceaseth for ever It is never to be accomplished by any mere man, for himself or for his brother. That he should live for ever That he should be excused from dying; and not see corruption Or, the pit, or the grave. These last four verses are well translated by Mudge, thus: They that trust in their substance, and boast in the abundance of their riches; not one can, in truth, redeem his brother, nor give to God his ransom; (for the ransom of their life is of too high a value, and he is extinct for ever;) so that he should live on continually, and not see the pit.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
49:6 They that trust in their {c} wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
(c) To trust in riches is madness, seeing they can neither restore life, nor prolong it.